Looks like it’s on: SAG negotiations broke down and the actors union will go on strike today, joining the writers guild, the WGA. Here’s the NY Times’ coverage (behind a paywall).
This is definitely an inflection point for the industry.
The whole thing, to me, feels like a very “Lucy and the Football” situation where the studios have, since time immemorial, said, “Trust us. That worst-case scenario where we screw you on new media/royalties/A.I./whatever? We won’t really do that. We just need some time to figure it out.”
But of course it’s a total lie. Using technological/business innovation screw the talent and lying about it is the complete and total plan.
So this time, with the threat of A.I. easy for everybody to understand—with a decade of brutal abuses to both the writers (free work) and actors (self-taped auditions) having worn everybody out—and with overall contraction in the industry, the guilds are refusing to fall for it.
So we’ll see what happens.
Stay strong—unions forever!
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